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Amazingly, the forgotten man tends to be veteran cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, who quietly put together one of the best years of his career in 2016.

Rodgers-Cromartie, who finished the season with 49 tackles, 21 passes defensed, one sack and six interceptions, was named a Second-team All-Pro. Still, he rarely sees the back pages or online headlines.

But as the analytics from the 2016 season get broken down, the more impressive DRC’s campaign turns out to be.

Over the weekend, Pro Football Focus released its playmakers index, and only two cornerbacks league-wide finished higher than Rodgers-Cromartie.

PFF details the playmaker index as the number of targets thrown into coverage against a player that end with either an interception or pass defensed. Rodgers-Cromartie combined for 27 last year.

Previously, Rodgers-Cromartie was also named among the NFL’s best ball-hawks courtesy of Bleacher Report.

8. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, CB, New York Giants

There was some talk that Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie might find his way off the Giants roster in 2017 due to his $8.5 million cap hit, per ESPN.com’s Jordan Raanan, but it’s more likely that he’ll stick around in the short term, because it’s hard to replace guys with an eye for the ball. And over the last three seasons, few have been better at that than DRC, who has 11 interceptions and 46 passes defensed in that span.

More impressively, Rodgers-Cromartie expanded his role in 2016 by playing the slot more often as the Giants transitioned their outside starters after the acquisition of former Rams cornerback Janoris Jenkins and 2016 first-round pick Eli Apple. When the Giants went with their base nickel package, Rodgers-Cromartie was great both inside and outside, allowing 48 catches on 86 targets for just two touchdowns and six picks.

At age 31, Rodgers-Cromartie still has the raw downfield speed to track faster receivers both outside and in the slot, and he can cover half the field in a hurry to help in deep zone coverage. He’s not especially physical at the line of scrimmage, but he’s an excellent tracker on short breaking routes, and he’ll consistently get his hand in to swat the ball away at the end of a route.

Is your third cornerback worth a big cap hit? In today’s NFL, and when that third cornerback plays at Rodgers-Cromartie’s level, the answer is an affirmative yes.